Like Indiana Jones, this reporter hates snakes

Like George Lucas’ famous character, Indiana Jones — and likely, Madison Heights girl Caylee Kapa, after she was recently bitten — I hate snakes.

I’ve hated them since 1990, when I was bitten at 4 years old by a massasauga rattler, Michigan’s only venomous snake.

I remember the day well — my preschool class, then called “My School,” was on a field trip to Indian Springs Metropark in White Lake.

After a weeklong stint at then-St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, I was able to boast that I was, in fact, the first person at that particular park to have been bitten by a rattlesnake.

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But immediately after the dark brown snake — a baby who hadn’t grown its rattler yet — wrapped around my hand, I wasn’t thinking about any of that. I was thinking of how I would get the thing off me.

There I was, on the nature trail — playing with my friends. Then I saw it.

I couldn’t just walk past it, I thought. After all, I could name most of the insects that crawled through my family’s backyard back then — I wasn’t going to stop there.

I reached down, picked it up and watched the 10-inch, diamond-backed beast wrap itself around my hand and finally dig its needlepoint fangs into my index finger.

After jumping up and down and waving my arm aggressively for what felt like an hour, I had managed to fling the reptile to the nature trail gravel.

My dad, Joe, remembers that he and my mom, Linda, beat the ambulance carrying me and my bloated left hand to the hospital.

“The school called and asked if I was sitting down,” says dad, who worked nights and had just laid down to rest when the phone rang. “They said that you had gotten bit by a rattlesnake and were being rushed to the hospital.”

I was transferred from Huron Valley to St. Joseph Mercy, and it seemed no one had the knowledge to deal with a venomous snake bite. At one point, my hand was swollen like a blown-up latex glove, and I even saw the trail of venom materialize through my veins in a series of red lines.

Luckily, a doctor from Arizona who had dealt with multiple snake-bite cases was in the area when I was admitted. He and the hospital staff administered antivenin, which is used only for more serious occurrences.

A few stuffed animals and “Double Dragon” video games later, I was back home, talking to reporters, telling them my story. I was a celebrity, a “fledgeling scientist,” so some reports said.

Fearing I would get into trouble for my curiosity, I told many of them that I confused the snake for a stick.

Let me clear the record, guys — I didn’t.

Maybe that life event is where my interest in the media and telling others’ stories comes from. Or maybe I’m just good at weaving my own.

Michigan’s most venomous

It seems Caylee and I were at a higher risk than most of being bit by a rattler, according to Lori Sargent, non-game wildlife biologist for Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources.

Sargent, a Walled Lake native now stationed in the greater Lansing area, has spent 21 years in her role on the DNR’s wildlife division. She says massasauga rattlesnakes are native to the area, so it’s nearly impossible to count them.

However, “Michigan is the stronghold in the Midwest, as far as (massasauga) population,” she says. “There are five or six hotspots in the state with the bulk of the massasauga population, compared with one or two elsewhere ... and Oakland County is right in the middle of one of those.”

Massasaugas are considered a special concern animal in Michigan, whereas they are endangered or threatened in other states. They can grow up to 3 feet long, but a baby’s bite is as potent as an adult’s.

They live near wetlands, and have a distinct, brown blotchy — some say diamond — pattern on their backs.

Sargent says that if someone is bitten, antivenin is used for serious snake bites. In less severe cases, a simple anti-inflammatory may suffice. Rattlesnakes lower the area’s vermin content, she adds.

“Doctors, I’m told, don’t want to use antivenin unless they have to ... it’s actually really expensive,” she says.

The snakes are non-aggressive and only strike when they feel threatened, says Sargent, so “the biggest thing is don’t touch them, and they’ll leave you alone.”

That’s a lesson Caylee and I learned the hard way. We both got bit, and antivenin was used in each case.

I felt for Caylee Kapa when I heard about her more recent snake-bite story. Thankfully, she’s recovering fine after her hospital stay. At least now she’ll have content for school essays for years to come and a great story to tell once she’s up to it.

But one thing I think we can both agree on is that we’ll take anything, like the daring Indiana Jones ...